MUYA @ Pint of Science 2019

(Digital Notes image created by SOAS student Flora Laney-Hubbard)

MUYA is delighted to have participated in this year's Pint of Science festival which saw more than 600 events take place across the UK between the 20th - 22nd May, 2019

To a packed upstairs bar at the Marquis Cornwallis pub in Bloomsbury, film-maker and MUYA collaborator Anna Sowa (Chouette Films) together with Leon Goldman delivered a multimedia presentation titled "VR: Virtual Reality/Virtual Ritual".

The evening served as a wonderful opportunity to showcase the 360-degree Yasna film that has been produced in connection with the MUYA project, as well as discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that new technologies such as Virtual Reality afford researchers.

The event also featured an engaging presentation by Dr. Sarah Stewart (SOAS) and Dr. Alexandra Buhler on the subject of digitising endangered languages, in particular, Zoroastrian Dari which is unwritten but still spoken by a small number of Zoroastrians in Iran. Through digitised oral testimony, attendees had the rare chance to hear Zoroastrian Dari being spoken by villagers and to watch them perform lay rituals.

Special thanks to Samantha Treasure (SOAS) for her work organising the event and to all those who attended and made the night so enjoyable.